TOKYO -- All fighters made weight Sunday for Dream's first outing in 2010.
Headlining the event will be a featherweight title match pitting former Dream lightweight champion
Joachim Hansen against incumbent champ
Bibiano Fernandes in what will be Hansen's debut fight at featherweight.
Always conservative with his comments to the media, Hansen kept it simple after stepping off the scales.
“Made the weight, been training hard,” he said. “Going to fight hard and give the best fight tomorrow.”
Hansen was serially underweight in his previous bouts at lightweight. This featherweight title fight marks his first attempt at cutting weight. According to “Hellboy,” the cut was relatively easy as the former lightweight champion dieted down to 143.7 pounds before shedding the rest of the weight in the sauna on weigh-in day to make 138.8 pounds for Dream's featherweight limit.
“When I heard he was coming down to the weight, I was a little scared -- not so much for myself, but for everyone else in the division,” said Hansen's cornerman,
Darren Uyenoyama, himself a Dream featherweight. “I believe tomorrow his power is really going to be visible now that he's fighting people his own weight. I think he's going to be a champion for as long as he wants to keep fighting.”
The champion Fernandes also kept his comments brief.
“I trained hard,” he said, “and I'll give 100 percent for tomorrow's fight.”
Heavyweights
Josh Barnett and
Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga clocked in at 253.5 and 330.7 pounds respectively.
“This is a big opportunity for me to fight
Josh Barnett,” Siliga said. “I've trained with him as a sparring partner, but we're both businessmen and this is a business opportunity for me. And for him, it's his chance to be a bully.”
Barnett, the only fighter in attendance wearing a suit, joked about his attire.
“So I'm used to working with K-1 before, and I did their first MMA show, K-1 Romanex. Me and Bob [Sapp] showed up in some nice jeans and a dress shirt, and [Kazuyoshi] Ishii-san, [the boss], looked at us and was like, 'Uh, you guys gotta get a suit next time. This is unacceptable.' So here I go, show up all pimped out in my Versace gear, and everybody's out in their warm-ups.”
Barnett kept the mood light, paying his respects to Mo for accepting the fight with him as well as paying particular respect to his power.
“They asked me what's my impression of Mighty Mo yesterday, and I said, 'I don't want a damn impression from him. When he leaves impressions, they're like craters in peoples' foreheads. I don't want that.'”
Finally arriving in Japan, 2005 Pride Fighting Championships audition winner KJ Noons said his upcoming bout with Andre “Dida” Amado felt like “a long time coming.”
“I have a lot of respect for my opponent, Dida,” said the former EliteXC lightweight champion. “This is the hardest I've trained in my life. This is the most ready, the best conditioning I've ever had. I've trained harder for this than I've ever trained for my world title fights. I'm just ready to get out there, have a war and show the fans that I'm a great fighter.”
Bibiano Fernandes (62.9 kg / 138.7 lbs) vs.
Joachim Hansen (63 kg / 138.9 lbs)
Josh Barnett (115 kg / 253.5 lbs) vs.
Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga (150 kg / 330.7 lbs)
KJ Noons (71.8 kg / 158.3 lbs) vs.
Andre "Dida" Amado (71.5 kg / 157.6 lbs)
Ryo Chonan (75.8 kg / 167.1 lbs) vs.
Andrews Nakahara (75.4 kg / 166.2 lbs)
Yoshiro Maeda (62.5 kg / 137.8 lbs) vs.
Cole Escovedo (62.8 kg / 138.5 lbs)
Kuniyoshi Hironaka (70 kg / 154.3 lbs) vs.
Katsunori Kikuno (70 kg / 154.3 lbs)
Ikuhisa Minowa (89 kg / 196.2 lbs) vs.
Jimmy Ambriz (125 kg / 275.6 lbs)
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